When Lorekeeper is dry and sitting in its container, it has a mild, slightly sweet scent. Nothing overpowering, but certainly pleasant enough that I was excited to see what it would reveal once I lathered it up.
Well... I used it for the first time this morning, and it did NOT disappoint!
The very first thing it did was transport me straight back to sitting at my small individual desk on a plastic chair in Grade 4.
I remember walking up to the pencil sharpener at the front of the classroom, sharpening my pencil and realizing the little catcher was full... so you have to empty that mixture of pencil shavings and graphite dust into the garbage. THAT smell. Instantly. Unmistakably. 1000% THAT smell.
Next, you do something stupid and the teacher needs you out of their hair for a bit. They hand you a couple of those old foam rubber chalkboard erasers and sends you down the hall to clean them on that deathtrap of a machine that somehow managed to kick more chalk dust into the air than it collected. Yep... that smell too.
Then there's that one Friday a year when everyone had to stack their desks and chairs in the corner because the floors were going to be stripped and waxed over the weekend. You'd come back Monday morning to that bright, slightly chemical combination of floor wax and solvent. Not unpleasant at all, just a fleeting little memory that somehow makes an appearance in the background.
And finally... the library.
Wandering between the shelves, surrounded by the smell of old books, dusty shelves, and that unmistakable library carpet. Finally finding a book to lose yourself in, disappearing into a quiet corner, and lying on the floor to read, blissfully escaping your teacher and the rest of the class for a little while.
That's where the Lorekeeper took me.
Nothing about this scent is overpowering. In fact, you almost have to go looking for some of these notes. They reveal themselves quietly, one after another, and somehow manage to create an atmosphere that feels incredibly familiar.
Right now as I type this up I am still getting faint whiffs of the scent. I'm lying on the carpet of my elementary school library in 1985, reading a book, having just sharpened my pencil and emptied the shavings into the garbage. And I couldn't be happier.
Lather: 4/5
Scent: 4.5/5
Time Machine Power: 1985/2026
Absolutely wonderful stuff! :)
